Saturday Evening, October 17th
This blog will have to be off-line also. I’m staying in Mexican style hotels because the price differential is so great. I haven’t found one with internet yet. I will look for a wifi network tomorrow. I maybe here for a couple of days. Yota is having some problems that need attention.
The last two days have been stunningly beautiful, but challenging. Yota and I left my “sweet chalet” just after first light. I met the owner, David, in the parking lot. We took an instant liking for each other. We talked for a while and agreed to exchange e-mails and I gave him the blog address. David is that kind of joyful, irrepressible Mexican that you have to like.
After that, Yota and I drove to the Divisadero and had a look. It’s not,as you would imagine. Anything like the Grand Canyon. It’s more like a great valley that stretches for hundreds of miles along the center of Sierra Madre. It spiders off in many directions.
Then we decided to continue following the path of El Chepe. Well guess what? El Chepe has bridges and tunnels. What happens next, I will tell in scant detail:
We experienced 9 hours of driving on narrow, rutty, often non-existent mountain trails. Most of them don’t exist on any map. We zig-zagged up and down mountains, crossed the divide, and then threaded our way out. We were lost half the time
We ended up still in the mountains of Sinaloa State in total darkness. Sinaloa is a very tough neighborhood. We actually encountered some bad guys. A gang of what seemed to be local toughs hanging out at an intersection just past a small town. We stopped at the intersection. We didn’t know which way to go. In That type of situation, my rule is: Act first. Be friendly. Try to get a laugh.
I drove over to them, lowered the window, and said, “Muy Buenos Noches”. One of them said something like Hola, que tal” “Whats up”
I said, “. Yo estoy un poco perdido” “I’m lost”. The Mexicans have an annoying habit, if you have an accent. They call someone who speaks or they think speaks English. “Llama Carlos”. So here comes Carlos. Carlos is a tough looking guy with a New Yorkish accent who speaks perfect English. I explained my situation.
He asked, “What are you doing out here man”
I said, “Paseando” That got a good laugh out of the other two guys standing next to Carlos, and he smiled. Paseando has no exact translaton, but it means wandering around aimlessly taking it all in.
Carlos said, “Well, be careful.” “Just go straight ahead on this road.”
“Thanks. “I’m trying to be careful, but………”
He turned to his buddies circled his finger in the air and pointed down the road.
Yota headed down the road slowly at first, then picked up speed.
It was about 9:00 PM. By 10:30, we had found a paved road and a motel in the town of El Fuerte.
I haven’t talked about what happened today,but today was the most remarkable day of the trip. One of the most remarkable of my life. Later. I have some good photos, and I think I can insert them at the very beginning of the blog. I can’t insert them into the text. Blogspot has a software problem.
Guy from Mazatlan
I'm going to try to post some photos at the beginning. Scroll all the way down to look for them.
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